JIANG Duo

PhD student
in Plant Ecophysiology

Team: MAGE

I hold a MSc in Plant Physiology from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Israel, 2020). Following my Master's degree, I served as a research student in wheat agronomy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Israel, 2020–2022), focusing on the interactions between elevated CO2 and drought stress on wheat physiology and yield performance. Currently (2023–to date), I am pursuing my PhD at the LEPSE where I continue my research in crop science in wheat.

Start of the PhD: 01.01.2023

Subject: How staging floret development can be leveraged for the analysis and modeling of grain-set responses to heat scenarios in wheat

Abstract
Grain number is a crucial yield component in wheat. It integrates the fate of individual florets and is strongly affected by environmental stress during sensitive stages, such as meiosis. Since development is asynchronous across tillers, spikelets, and florets, it’s difficult to distinguish true stress tolerance from stress escape when evaluating the feritility response at plant or tiller-level, especially under sudden stresses like short-term heatwaves.
This thesis addresses this challenge by establishing a framework for accurate, floret-level developmental tracking and modeling of the grain-set response to heat scenarios. Chapter 1 focuses on developing a non-destructive staging framework to accurately identify floret development, specifically the meiosis stage, using simple morphological traits. Chapter 2 leverages this framework to determine the precise timing and extent of fertility loss at the floret level resulting from a single heat stress event, isolating the true physiological sensitivity. Finally, Chapter 3 synthesizes these experimental findings into a predictive, process-based model that integrates grain-set response to different heat duration, intensity, heat sensitivity timing and recurrent heat stresses to transform the research into a practical tool for forecasting grain number under diverse thermal scenarios.

Key words: Crop Modeling, Developmental Asynchrony, Fertility, Floret Development, Grain Number, Heat Stress, Meiosis, Wheat.crop modelling, ecophysiology, genetic diversity, recurrent heat stress, wheat.

Supervisors
UMR LEPSE, MAGE team: Boris Parent (PhD supervisor), Denis Vile (PhD co-supervisor)

Publications

Duo Jiang, Olivier Turc, Aurélien Ausset, Alexis Bédiée, Jessica Bertheloot, Denis Vile, Parent B (2025) Temporal profiling of meiotic asynchrony between florets for wheat-fertility studies. Authorea .DOI: 10.22541/au.176279115.51779226/v1

Jiang, D., Mulero, G., Bonfil, D.J. & Helman, D. (2022) Early or late? The role of genotype phenology in determining wheat response to drought under future high atmospheric CO₂ levels. Plant, Cell & Environment, 45, 3445– 3461. https://doi.org/10.1111/pce.14430

Mulero, G., Jiang, D., Bonfil, D. J. & Helman, D. (2023) Use of thermal imaging and the photochemical reflectance index (PRI) to detect wheat response to elevated CO₂ and drought. Plant, Cell & Environment, 46, 76– 92. https://doi.org/10.1111/pce.14472